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https://archive.org/details/storyofpullmanOOpull 


I. 


The  Pullman  World’s  Fair  exhibit  is  unique.  It  is  unique 
in  the  fact  that  what  it  represents  is  in  its  entire  devel- 
opment, as  well  as  its  origin,  distinctively  and  purely  American. 
It  is  the  evolution  of  an  idea  originated  by  an  American,  in  a 
wholly  new  field  of  progress  in  which  there  had  not  been  even 
any  tentative  gropings  in  other  lands  than  ours,  and  by  an 
American  worked  out  along  lines  of  strong  individual  person- 
ality, until  it  has  overshadowed  and  revolutionized  all  other 
methods  everywhere  in  the  area  of  its  operation. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  in  connection  with  the  Pullman 
Exhibition  train  that  it  holds  precisely  the  same  position  in  its 
particular  field  that  was  held  by  the  first  Pullman  car  ever 
built.  The  first  Pullman  car,  at  the  time  it  was  completed, 
represented  the  Nineteenth  century’s  highest  achievement  in 
the  machinery  of  travel,  just  as  unquestionably  as  does  the 
train  of  Pullmans  exhibited  at  the  Columbian  Exposition 
of  1893.  Not  only  that,  but  there  has  never  been  a time, 
from  the  completion  of  that  first  car  to  the  completion  of 
the  World’s  P'air  train,  when  the  Pullman  car  was  not  the 
Nineteenth  century’s  highest  achievement  in  vehicles  for  pass- 
enger transportation.  During  all  the  years  from  the  beginning 
of  the  Pullman  work  to  the  present  day,  it  has  never  been  dis- 
lodged from  the  dominant  position  it  took  in  one  leap  at  the 
very  outset.  Had  a World’s  Fair  been  held  every  year,  from 
that  in  which  the  old  Pioneer,  the  first  of  the  great  Pullman 


2 


fleet  of  traveling  palaces,  was  launched,  to  the  year  in  which 
we  live,  the  best  the  century  had  done  in  solving  the  problem 
of  long  journeyings  by  land  would  always  have  been  the 
latest  car  turned  out  from  the  Pullman  shops. 

Of  the  material  benefits  to  humanity  which  this  achieve- 
ment has  brought,  the  beautiful  train  of  World’s  Fair  cars  is 
the  expression.  It  speaks  for  itself;  needs  no  interpreter.  But 
there  is  more  than  a material  side  to  what  has  been  accom- 
plished. In  the  building  up  of  the  Pullman  industries,  what 
may  be  termed  pure  abstract  sentiment  has  played  a greater 
part  than  is  commonly  known.  Appreciation  of  the  value  of 
the  beautiful  has  not  found  expression  merely  in  making 
sleeping-car  interiors  the  object-lessons  in  decorative  art  that 
they  are.  That  which  is  harmonious  and  beautiful  has  been 
recognized  as  having  an  incitive  energy  of  its  own,  capable  in 
its  way  of  being  turned  to  account  as  a force  in  the  produc- 
tion of  results,  just  as  is  the  force  of  the  steam  engine  itself. 
It  is  as  a symbol  of  this,  to  a certain  extent,  that  the  World’s 
Fair  model  of  the  Town  of  Pullman  has  significance.  But  the 
Town  of  Pullman  means  more  than  that.  It  is  a product,  and 
perhaps  may  prove  to  be  the  culminating  product  in  its  endur- 
ing benefits  to  mankind,  of  the  principles  on  which  the  entire 
Pullman  fabric  is  reared.  Its  growth  is  as  much  the  logical 
outcome  of  those  principles  as  is  the  palace  car  train  itself. 

To  understand  this,  to  know  something  of  how  one  man 
has  been  able  to  create  a vast  productive  industry,  which  is  one 
of  the  century’s  great  civilizing  strides,  and  which,  from  small 
beginnings  has  now  reached  a market  value  of  $60,000,000,  it 
is  necessary  to  get  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  undertaking, 
and  to  follow  briefly  the  outline  of  its  development. 


GREEN  STONE  CHURCH. 


fae  .-i 


■'’  A.'.i 

• >*-  r '■  ♦ ■ - 'h>T»'  ■■  1 


,-5v  -C 


» . *■  ■ ■ . ' V 

<-  . * 


I- 


II. 


At  just  what  time  Mr.  Pullman  first  began  thinking  on 
the  subject  of  sleeping-cars,  he  would  himself  perhaps  find 
it  difficult  to  tell.  The  problem  had  been  raised  by  the 
completion  of  what  then  were  considered  long  lines  of  rail- 
road. Baltimore,  Philadelphia  and  New  York  had  thrown  out 
filaments  of  iron  for  considerable  distances  toward  the  West. 
To  get  to  the  Ohio  River  at  either  Wheeling  or  Pittsburgh,  or 
to  get  to  Lake  Erie  at  Dunkirk  or  Buffalo,  involved  a journey 
of  over  400  miles.  A journey  of  400  miles  took  as  much  time 
as  now  does  one  of  more  than  double  that  distance.  The 
physical  fatigue  involved  was  greater  than  is  now  incident  to 
a trip  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Pacific. 

With  the  increase  of  competition  there  had  come  an 
increase  in  the  public  demands.  Roads  began  to  make  efforts 
to  increase  travel  by  introducing  devices  to  promote  the 
traveler’s  comfort,  and  certain  clumsy  attempts  were  made  to 
provide  him  a sort  of  bunk  in  which  he  could  get  a little  sleep 
at  night. 

Mr.  Pullman  was  at  that  time  a young  man.  In  a general 
way,  the  sleeping-car  and  its  possibilities  had  floated  through 
his  mind,  and  he  had  casually  discussed  the  matter  with 
friends.  His  first  serious  attention  to  it,  however,  dates 
from  a certain  night  journey  he  made  about  that  time  from 
Buffalo  to  Westfield.  It  was  a sixty-mile  ride,  and  he  occu- 
pied a bunk  in  one  of  the  so-called  sleeping-cars  of  that 


4 


epoch.  During  the  journey  he  lay  awake,  revolving  in  his 
mind  plans  by  which  the  car  could  be  transformed  into  a dor- 
mitory, in  which  there  would  be  a greater  degree  of  comfort 
and  elegance.  While  it  cannot  be  said  that  his  determina- 
tion to  make  sleeping-car  construction  the  occupation  of  his 
life  dates  from  that  particular  night’s  ride,  it  is  certain  that 
he  left  the  train  at  Westfield  convinced  that  he  could  build  a 
better  car  than  the  one  he  had  just  occupied,  and  dimly  seeing, 
even  thus  early,  the  possibility  of  there  being  in  that  direc- 
tion a field  for  his  life-work. 

But  it  was  not  until  some  time  after  this,  that  he  entered 
into  the  subject  in  earnest.  His  reflections  had  then  convinced 
him  that  in  the  sleeping-car  lay  the  solution  of  the  problem  of 
long  continuous  journeys,  which  in  the  near  future  was  des- 
tined to  become  among  the  most  important  to  the  traveling 
public  of  any  growing  out  of  the  rapid  expansion  of  the 
American  system  of  railroads.  During  the  years  from  1859  to 
1863,  he  made  a series  of  experiments  on  the  Chicago  & Alton 
and  the  old  Galena  roads.  From  these  experiments,  which 
involved  not  only  his  own  devices  but  the  suggestions  of 
patents  then  existing,  he  had  worked  out  detailed  plans  which 
he  set  about  putting  into  execution  on  a thorough  and  compre- 
hensive basis.  A workshop  was  rented  and  skilled  mechanics 
employed.  Mr.  Pullman  threw  himself  into  the  task  with  the 
ardor  of  a man  who  moves  from  settled  convictions.  Although 
he  was  without  mechanical  training  himself,  he  personally 
directed  the  work  of  others  in  all  the  minute  details  of  putting 
the  ideas  he  had  originated  into  material  form. 

The  result  of  many  months  of  hard,  loyal  labor  was  the  car 
Pioneer.  The  place  the  Pioneer  at  once  took  as  the  most  per- 


MAIN  ADMINISTRATION  BUILDING. 


6 


feet  railway  vehicle  the  world,  up  to  that  time,  had  ever  seen, 
has  been  already  mentioned.  How  great  was  the  gap  between 
it  and  the  best  that  had  gone  before  is  indicated  by  the  com- 
parative cost.  The  best  sleeping-cars  in  use  before  the  Pioneer 
had  cost  ;^4,000  each.  The  Pioneer  cost  $18,000.  That  was  a 
tremendous  leap  forward.  It  was  a revolution  in  all  exist- 
ing theories  of  car  construction.  The  new  car  was  a radical 
departure,  not  only  in  respect  of  weight  and  solidity,  but 
also  in  the  elaborate  and  artistic  nature  of  its  interior 
fittings  and  decorations.  In  both  of  these  respects  it  was 
adversely  criticised.  That  massive  strength  combined  with 
striking  beauty  of  ornamentation  and  minute  elaboration  of 
every  device  for  comfort,  which  all  the  world  now  recognize 
as  the  highest  distinctive  merits  of  the  Pullman  cars,  was 
the  very  point  which  at  the  outset  was  most  strenuously 
objected  to. 

It  is  time  that  tells  in  the  case  of  all  great  progressive 
innovations,  and  in  the  light  of  what  time  has  told  us  who 
live  in  this  last  decade  of  the  century,  it  is  instructive  as  well 
as  amusing  to  recall  the  grounds  on  which  the  first  application 
of  the  Pullman  principles  in  car  building  were  condemned. 

We  know  now  that  men  will  not  climb  in  between  the 
sheets  of  a Pullman  sleeping-car  bed  with  their  boots  on,  and 
that  they  will  not  regard  sleeping-car  carpets  and  upholstery 
in  the  light  of  convenient  cuspidors.  We  know  that  the  same 
instinct  which  makes  people  conform  in  their  habits  to  elegant 
surroundings  in  homes,  will  make  them  proportionately  con- 
form to  them  in  public  vehicles.  We  know  that  the  beautiful 
interiors  of  Pullman  cars,  which  were  once  condemned  as 
absurd  extravagance,  have  now  a commercial  value,  which 


6 


men  are  not  only  willing  to  pay  for,  but  have  come  to  demand, 
and  that  they  therefore  are  a profitable  financial  investment. 
We  know,  too,  that  probably  from  no  other  one  source  has 
there  sprung  so  widely  diffused  an  education,  so  general  an 
ambition  in  the  direction  of  interior  decorative  art,  the  effect 
of  which  is  seen  in  thousands  of  American  homes  to-day,  as 
has  come  from  the  beautiful  object-lessons  which  these  cars 
have  carried  to  the  remotest  regions  of  the  country. 

All  this  we  know,  now  that  it  has  been  demonstrated  to  us, 
just  as  well  as  we  know  that  the  massive  weight  and  strength 
of  the  Pullman  car  have  saved  hundreds  of  lives  in  railway 
disasters,  and  that  the  Pullman  standard  of  weight,  solidity, 
and  beauty  of  ornamentation  has  set  the  pace  which  has  been 
followed  in  the  construction  of  the  passenger  cars  in  use  upon 
all  the  roads  of  the  country.  Indeed,  the  best  types  of  all 
passenger  vehicles  in  operation  to-day  in  the  United  States, 
might  properly  be  included  in  the  Pullman  World’s  Fair 
exhibit  of  results  accomplished,  for  the  reason  that  they  are 
as  distinctively  the  outcome  of  Pullman  ideas  and  the  public 
demand  which  is  the  result  of  those  ideas,  as  are  the  Pullman 
cars  themselves. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  the  criticisms  of  the  Pioneer 
were  universally  adverse.  On  the  contrary,  the  car  attracted 
wide  attention,  and  was  enthusiastically  admired.  Its  supe- 
riority over  anything  ever  before  built  was  too  obvious  to  be 
unrecognized.  The  objection  found  to  it  was  the  vital  one 
that  it  would  not  pay.  The  fact  was  that  the  stride  forward 
was  too  sudden,  too  great  a shock  to  existing  theories  for  even 
the  most  progressive  railway  men  to  follow  at  once  to  its  real 
significance. 


a" 


i». 


.•.._..3’.;-'*5^i-4/|^*  ___ 

. ? -'oiui'*^'-*^’  . ’ 'U  .j'  -V ' ..wiS^ES / ’ • 


.yr.i^.  . ...A  -,.  ,;lv^-^:^, 


i^i  ''''i#r>. 


Wf: 


' . V . ';"v  '!*.j^i.«'y' .-'T/.  .r;  ^ 

I '7S-’"'’?.;®  i'Sj. 


7 


The  Pullman  idea  in  particular,  that  money  could  be 
safely  invested  in  an  elaboration  of  the  utilitarian  into  the 
artistic  and  beautiful,  was  a startling  departure.  The  Ameri- 
can citizen,  it  was  assumed,  had  a sovereign  contempt  for  any- 
thing, especially  in  the  applied  sciences,  which  in  the  slightest 
degree  stepped  over  the  baldest  utility  into  the  boundaries  of 
the  ornamental.  If  you  gave  him  the  substantial  with  artistic 
surroundings  and  beautiful  accessories,  the  assumption  was  that 
it  was  reasonably  certain  he  would  expectorate  on  the  surround- 
ings and  wipe  his  boots  on  the  accessories.  It  was  certain  he 
would  never  pay  for  either  the  one  or  the  other. 

That  was  practically  the  theory  on  which  railway  passenger 
cars  were  constructed  prior  to  the  building  of  the  Pioneer.  It 
was  erroneous,  of  course,  as  the  Pioneer  and  its  immediate  suc- 
cessors demonstrated.  Yet  the  crudity  of  public  taste  in  the 
United  States  at  that  time  as  contrasted  with  the  present  day  is 
sufficiently  apparent.  There  is  no  more  striking  illustration  of 
this  than  comes  from  a comparison  of  the  architecture  of  the 
decade  of  1850-60  with  that  of  the  decade  in  which  we  are  now 
living.  The  progress  in  artistic  development  made  in  the  inter- 
val by  the  people  of  the  whole  country  which  this  contrast 
reveals,  is  truly  remarkable;  and  it  is  quite  within  bounds  to  say 
that  one  at  least  of  the  influences  which  have  brought  about 
this  result,  is  the  sincere  efforts  in  that  line  which  have  marked 
every  stage  of  progress  in  the  Pullman  work. 

In  his  own  field  Mr.  Pullman  was  in  reality  the  pioneer 
in  this  element  of  progress.  He  was  a believer  in  the  beauti- 
ful, and  he  believed  earlier  than  others  whose  dealings  were 
with  the  public,  that  the  American  people  would  pay  their 
money  for  it  and  respect  it  in  a public  vehicle  as  well  as  in  a 


8 


private  home.  How  firmly  he  nailed  his  colors  to  this  convic- 
tion he  demonstrated  in  the  very  next  car  he  built.  Into  the 
Pioneer  he  put  more  than  four  times  as  much  money  as  had 
ever  gone  into  the  construction  of  any  car  it  succeeded. 
Into  the  Pioneer’s  successor  he  put  six  times  as  much.  The 
Pioneer  cost  $18,000;  the  car  which  came  after  it  cost  $24,000. 

It  was  on  the  Michigan  Central  Railway  that  the  Pioneer’s 
immediate  successors  were  first  run.  Mr.  Joy,  the  President 
of  that  line  when  the  new  Pullmans  were  put  on,  was  one  of 
the  progressive  railroad  men  of  the  day,  and  he  had  caught 
the  meaning  of  the  Pullman  work  and  had  seen  in  it  practi- 
cal possibilities.  But  even  he  had  his  doubts  when  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  new  cars  must  be  run  were  presented 
to  him.  Their  largely  increased  cost  necessitated  an  increased 
tariff  for  berths.  The  price  of  a berth  in  the  old  cars  was 
$1.50.  It  was  impracticable  to  sell  a berth  in  a car  that  had  cost 
$24,000  for  less  than  two  dollars.  The  increase,  President  Joy 
said,  could  not  be  attempted.  The  additional  fifty  cents 
would  drive  night-travel  from  his  road  to  competing  lines. 

Mr.  Pullman  suggested  that  the  matter  be  submitted  to  the 
decision  of  the  traveling  public.  He  proposed  that  the  new 
cars,  with  their  increased  rate,  be  put  on  trains  with  the  old 
cars  at  the  cheaper  rate.  If  the  traveling  public  thought  the 
beauty  of  finish,  the  increased  comfort  and  the  safety  of  the 
new  cars  worth  two  dollars  per  night,  there  were  the  $24,000 
cars;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  were  satisfied  with  less 
attractive  surroundings  at  a saving  of  fifty  cents,  the  cheaper 
cars  were  at  their  disposal.  It  was  a simple  submission  without 
argument  of  the  plain  facts  on  both  sides  of  the  issue — in  other 
words,  an  application  of  the  good  American  doctrine  of  appeal- 


THE  ARCADE. 


9 


ing  to  the  people  as  the  court  of  highest  resort.  The  decision 
came  instantly  and  in  terms  which  left  no  opening  for  discus- 
sion. The  only  travelers  who  rode  in  the  old  cars  were  those 
who  were  grumbling  because  they  could  not  get  berths  in  the 
new  ones.  After  running  practically  empty  for  a few  weeks, 
the  cars  in  which  the  price  for  a berth  was  ;Si.50  were  with- 
drawn from  service,  and  Pullmans,  wherein  the  two-dollar  tariff 
prevailed,  were  substituted  in  their  places,  and  this  for  the 
very  potent  reason  that  the  public  insisted  upon  it.  Nor  did 
the  results  stop  there.  The  Michigan  Central  Railway,  charg- 
ing an  extra  tariff  of  fifty  cents  per  night  as  compared  with 
other  Eastern  lines,  proved  an  aggressive  competitor  of  those 
lines,  not  in  spite  of  the  extra  charge,  but  because  of  it  and 
of  the  higher  order  of  comfort  and  beauty  it  represented. 

Then  followed  a curious  reversal  of  the  usual  results  of 
competition.  Instead  of  a leveling  down  to  the  cheaper  basis 
on  which  all  opposition  was  united,  there  was  a leveling  up  to 
the  standard  on  which  the  Pullman  service  was  planted  and  on 
which  it  stood  out  single-handed  and  alone.  Within  compara- 
tively a short  period  all  the  Michigan  Central’s  rival  lines  were 
forced  by  sheer  pressure  from  the  traveling  public  to  withdraw 
the  inferior  and  cheaper  cars  and  meet  the  superior  accommo- 
dations and  the  necessarily  higher  tariff. 

In  other  words,  the  inspiration  of  that  key-note  of  vigorous 
ambition  for  excellence  of  the  product  itself,  irrespective  of 
immediate  financial  returns,  which  was  struck  with  such 
emphasis  in  the  building  of  the  Pioneer,  and  which  ever  since 
has  rung  through  all  the  Pullman  work,  was  felt  in  the  railroad 
world  of  the  United  States  at  that  early  date  just  as  it  is  even 
more  dominantly  felt  at  the  present  time.  At  one  bound  it 


10 


put  the  American  railway  passenger  service  in  the  leadership 
of  all  nations  in  that  particular  branch  of  progress,  and  has 
held  it  there  ever  since  as  an  object-lesson  in  the  illustration 
of  a broad  and  far-reaching  principle. 


WATER  TOWER. 


IRON  MACHINE  SHOP, 


CORLISS  ENGINE  HOUSE, 


III. 


Mr.  Pullman  had  the  good  fortune  to  bring  to  the  task 
he  had  undertaken  an  ambition  free  from  the  fever  of  rapid 
wealth-getting.  He  had  within  him,  to  a marked  degree,  the 
creative  instinct,  the  instinct  which  finds  its  highest  gratification 
in  the  thing  itself  that  is  created;  which  puts  that  always 
first,  leaving  the  financial  results  to  follow  in  their  proper 
place,  as  incidents  and  corollaries  of  the  main  proposition. 
He  never  at  any  stage  of  his  progress  entertained  the  idea 
of  turning  the  results  he  accomplished  into  a speculation.  A 
voyage  to  the  illusive  shores  which  border  the  oft-navigated 
sea  of  watered  stock  never  entered  into  his  calculations.  His 
entire  energies  were  concentrated  upon  the  work  itself,  and 
upon  its  constant  improvement.  Indeed  that  which  from  the 
first  has  kept  the  integrity  of  the  Pullman  prestige,  may  be 
described  as  a chronic  dissatisfaction  with  that  which  has 
been.  The  persistent  effort  to  do  something  better  than  has 
ever  been  done  before,  which  sent  the  first  Pullman  car  leagues 
ahead  of  anything  that  had  preceded  it,  has  never  for  a mo- 
ment been  relaxed.  In  all  the  early  contracts  with  railroad 
companies,  there  was  provided  a margin  to  devote  to  efforts 
toward  this  constant  betterment. 

It  is  this  spirit  which  has  made  the  Pullman  work  through- 
out its  entire  development  a progressive  series  of  revelations, 
many  of  them  almost  as  striking  as  was  the  revelation  in  travel 
possibilities  which  the  Pioneer  itself  represented.  Gradually 


12 


in  this  way  the  traveling-hotel  idea  was  expanded.  It  was 
Mr.  Pullman  who  taught  the  w'orld  that  you  can  take  a luxuri- 
ous meal  at  the  rate  of  fifty  miles  an  hour,  just  as  it  was  he 
who  has  made  it  possible  for  a man  to  do  a day’s  work  in  one 
city,  and  rise  refreshed  and  ready  for  another  day’s  work  in 
another  city  nearly  a thousand  miles  away.  It  is  an  interesting 
speculation  as  to  how  much  this,  by  multiplying  many  times 
the  working  capacity  of  the  individual,  has  added  to  the  total 
industrial  energy  of  the  country. 

The  hotel  feature  on  the  Pullman  train  was  itself  developed 
and  improved  upon  until  it  reached  its  culmination  in  that 
exclusively  Pullman  device,  the  vestibule,  which  makes  a solid 
yet  perfectly  sinuous  train  with  practically  absolute  immunity 
from  danger  to  passengers  in  even  the  most  violent  collision, 
and  with  the  striking  result  of  an  entire  train  under  one  roof, 
in  which  the  traveler  may  pass  from  his  dining-room  to  his 
sitting-room,  or  to  his  sleeping-room,  as  in  his  own  home. 

How  startling  was  the  revelation  made  by  this  bold  and 
original  departure,  is  sufficiently  shown  by  the  almost  universal 
adoption  of  it,  or  of  substitutes  which  were  close  imitations 
of  external  appearances  only,  containing  such  features  as  might 
be  used  in  technical  avoidance  of  the  Pullman  patents,  but 
lacking  the  essence  of  the  invention  which  gives  it  its  greatest 
value — the  frictional  contact  for  preventing  oscillation,  and  the 
greater  strength  in  resisting  the  shocks  of  collision. 

With  the  possible  exception  of  the  invention  of  the  air- 
brake, which  puts  the  control  of  the  train  so  completely  into 
the  hands  of  the  engineer,  there  has  been  no  event  of  railway 
development  so  important  in  securing  safety  to  the  traveling 
public  as  the  invention  of  the  Pullman  vestibule.  In  its  latest 


BOULEVARD,  (iiitli  Street.) 


w.  -r  ' -r  i/' 

r'  • . 


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■.•.■'■\'“iMV  \‘',‘^v.  '^'%r.<-'-i 

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13 


application,  as  illustrated  by  the  World’s  Fair  train,  it  is  ex- 
tended to  the  locomotive  tender  itself,  thus  taking  into  its 
protecting  arms  not  only  the  passengers,  but  the  employes  in 
the  baggage  and  mail  cars  as  well;  and  this  extension  is  so 
constructed  as  to  act  as  a wind-deflector,  thus  diminishing 
atmospheric  resistance  to  the  speed  of  trains. 

The  vestibule  feature  has  also  been  enlarged  in  the  Pullman 
Exhibition  train  to  the  full  width  of  the  cars,  by  extending  the 
sides  of  the  cars  and  enclosing  the  ends,  together  with  an  orig- 
inal and  ingenious  arrangement  of  vestibule  entrance  doors, 
and  trap-doors  over  the  steps.  This  materially  adds  to  the 
comfort  of  passengers  by  doing  away  with  the  “wind  pockets” 
which  are  formed  by  the  ordinary  projecting  hoods  over  open 
platforms;  and,  furthermore,  provides  a comfortable  and  pro- 
tected place  for  brakemen  or  other  train  employes  whose 
duties  may  require  them  to  ride  occasionally  upon  platforms. 

It  is  barely  six  years  since  the  vestibule  was  invented,  yet  it 
has  become  so  firmly  fixed  a feature  of  railway  appliances  that 
it  has  in  reality  given  a new  word  to  the  English  language. 
The  term  “ vestibuled  train  ” has  passed  into  accepted  use 
wherever  English  is  spoken. 

But  the  making  of  the  best  cars  that  had  been  known  was 
but  a preliminary  step  toward  building  up  the  Pullman  service 
such  as  we  know  it  to-day.  We  now  start  out  from  a city  in 
the  United  States,  Canada  or  Mexico,  and  we  travel  to  all  ac- 
cessible parts  of  the  North  American  continent,  and  every- 
where, over  hundreds  of  different  railroads,  we  find  the  one 
harmonious,  perfectly  administered  system  of  transportation. 
You  may  go  aboard  a Pullman  car  in  New  York  or  Chicago, 
and  you  may  go  aboard  one  in  the  wilds  of  Arizona,  and  in 


14 


either  case  you  find  the  same  beautiful  surroundings,  the  same 
cleanliness  and  order,  the  same  comfort  and  attentive  service. 
It  is  like  one  vast  ubiquitous  hotel,  this  Pullman  service, 
which  you  may  enter  anywhere  and  in  which  you  may  go 
anywhere,  taking  your  slippered  ease  in  your  inn  as  you  go. 

What  of  labor  and  tact  and  diplomatic  gift  it  has  required 
to  build  up  all  this,  is  comparatively  little  appreciated.  We 
now  and  then  marvel  at  the  beauty  and  comfort  of  the  par- 
ticular shuttle  which  we  occupy  in  its  swift  flight,  but  the  great 
complicated  mechanism  of  travel  which  spreads  all  over  the 
continent,  and  of  which  our  own  particular  shuttle  is  only  a 
detail  doing  its  appointed  part — all  this  we  accept  as  a matter 
of  course.  If  we  think  of  it  at  all,  it  is  with  the  vague  general 
impression  that  it  is  a natural  evolution,  a problem  which 
somehow  worked  its  own  way  out. 

To  demonstrate  that  the  objections  to  the  first  Pullman 
car  were  groundless  was  a much  easier  task  than  to  convince 
railroad  men  that  it  was  only  through  an  administration  extra- 
neous to  any  one  road,  or  group  of  roads,  that  the  best  results 
to  the  railroads  and  to  the  public  from  the  operation  of  those 
cars  were  to  be  obtained.  The  cars  themselves  carried  their 
own  argument,  told  their  own  story.  The  operating  system 
came  only  gradually  into  evidence.  Railroad  men,  with 
their  minds  concentrated  on  the  development  and  admin- 
istration of  their  own  lines,  had  not  given  sufficient  attention 
to  the  matter  of  long  continuous  runs  to  enable  them  quite  to 
grasp  the  subject.  The  building  up  of  such  a system,  they  said, 
was  impracticable.  The  interests  involved  were  too  conflict- 
ing, it  was  argued,  ever  to  be  harmonized.  At  the  very  best 
such  a system  would  hang  upon  the  slender  thread  of  con- 


HOTEL  FLORENCE^  THE  ARCADE. 


15 


tracts,  and  contracts  would  expire.  Besides  this,  if  the  busi- 
ness should  prove  profitable,  each  railroad  would  insist  upon 
operating  its  own  sleeping-car  and  parlor-car  services. 

As  a matter  of  fact,  all  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  carrying 
out  the  project  which  were  predicted  for  it,  as  well  as  many 
more  which  were  not  predicted,  actually  did  present  them- 
selves and  had  to  be  overcome.  There  were  two  forces  which 
constantly  pushed  the  Pullman  plan  toward  success.  The 
plan,  to  begin  with,  was  the  logically  correct  one.  In  addi- 
tion to  that,  the  public  was  being  steadily  educated  up  to 
demand  a standard  of  excellence  in  car  equipment  which  just 
one  concern  produced,  and  that  was  the  Pullman  Company. 
The  constant  evolution  by  that  company  of  striking  material 
improvements  and  new  beauties  of  design  and  ornamentation, 
kept  a wide  gap  between  it  and  the  entire  field  of  imitators 
which  had  sprung  up  in  opposition.  It  was  a contest  to  be 
decided  on  its  merits  alone,  and  the  deciding  power  was  fast 
slipping  from  the  hands  of  the  railroads  to  the  hands  of  the 
public.  The  public  had  demonstrated  not  only  that  it  would 
pay  for  the  best,  but  that  it  would  demand  the  best,  and 
with  competition  at  the  point  which  it  had  now  reached,  the 
public  demands  were  not  to  be  slighted. 

Then  came  the  completion  of  the  great  Pacific  line  across 
the  continent.  Here  was  the  problem  of  long  continuous 
journeys  presented  in  its  most  striking  form.  Almost  simul- 
taneously with  the  completion  of  the  Pacific  road,  there  was 
put  upon  the  rails  one  of  the  most  superb  trains  ever  turned 
out  of  the  Pullman  shops.  Its  journey  to  California  and  its 
reception  there,  were  in  the  nature  of  a progress  and  an  ova- 
tion. From  that  time  forth  the  great  population  of  the  Pacific 


16 


coast  knew  no  train  for  long-distance  travel  save  a Pullman 
train,  and  would  hear  of  no  other.  When  people  from  Cali- 
fornia reached  Chicago  on  their  way  eastward,  the  road  over 
which  Pullman  cars  ran  got  their  patronage,  and  roads  over 
which  other  cars  were  operated  did  not.  Newspapers  and 
magazines  were  awakened  anew  to  studies  of  the  Pullman  cars 
and  the  Pullman  system,  and  scores  of  printed  pages  were 
filled  with  the  marvels  of  a journey  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  which 
was  nothing  more  than  a six  days’  sojourn  in  a luxurious  hotel, 
past  the  windows  of  which  there  constantly  flowed  a great  pano- 
ramic belt  of  the  American  continent  thousands  of  miles  in 
length,  and  as  wide  as  the  eye  could  reach.  Illustrated  maga- 
zine articles  which  appeared,  telling  the  story  of  a trip  to  Cali- 
fornia, had  as  many  pictures  of  Pullman  interiors  as  they  had 
of  the  big  trees  or  the  Yosemite  Valley. 

The  effect  of  all  this  was  far-reaching.  The  great  Penn- 
sylvania line  abandoned  its  own  service  and  adopted  the  Pull- 
man. The  companies  operating  the  sleeping-car  and  parlor-car 
services  on  the  New  York  Central  and  Lake  Shore  systems 
made  application  for  the  privilege  of  using  the  Pullman  plans, 
and  were  permitted  to  do  so  upon  payment  of  stipulated  roy- 
alties, which  continued  for  many  years,  and  until  the  expiration 
of  the  Pullman  patents.  Other  opposition  lines  were  absorbed, 
and  the  Pullman  system  and  the  Pullman  cars  established  at  last 
as  we  now  know  them,  when  the  very  name  Pullman  has  be- 
come a synonymous  and  interchangeable  term  for  the  sleeping- 
car  and  the  sleeping-car  service.  Its  fleet  has  grown  from  one 
car  to  2,500;  its  working  force  from  half  a dozen  men  to  15,000. 
Its  cars  are  operated  over  nearly  a hundred  roads,  and  over  a 
mileage  equivalent  to  five  times  the  circumference  of  the  globe. 


LIBRARY. 


17 


From  the  first  year  of  its  existence  it  has  paid  its  quarterly 
dividends  with  the  regularity  of  a government  loan,  and  its 
;^30,000,000  of  capital  has  a market  value  of  ^60,000,000,  while 
its  stock  is  so  largely  sought  as  a rock-ribbed  security  for  the 
investment  of  the  funds  of  educational  and  charitable  institu- 
tions, of  women  and  of  trust  estates,  that  out  of  its  3,246  stock- 
holders, 1,800  are  of  this  class,  and  1,494  of  these  1,800  are 
women. 


IV. 


The  story  of  Pullman  naturally  divides  itself  into  three 
parts — the  building  of  the  car,  the  building  up  of  the  operating 
system,  and  the  building  of  the  town.  Each  of  these  stages 
is  the  natural,  logical  sequence  of  the  other;  through  them  all 
there  runs  the  same  underlying  thought,  the  same  thread  of 
ideas. 

The  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company  suffered,  as  did  all  other 
industries,  during  the  financial  depression  immediately  follow- 
ing 1873,  but  the  reaction  which  came  on  the  heels  of  that 
gloomy  era,  on  the  resumption,  in  1879,  of  specie  payments, 
developed  a rapid  expansion  of  the  Company’s  business.  To 
meet  this  expansion  and  to  extend  the  business  still  further 
along  the  line  of  general  car-building  and  of  other  collateral 
industries,  it  became  necessary  to  enlarge  the  plant.  Its 
shops  in  St.  Louis,  Detroit,  Elmira  and  Wilmington  were 
unable  to  keep  pace  with  the  growing  volume  of  demand 
for  the  company’s  productions.  New  shops  must  be  built  on 
a larger  and  more  comprehensive  scale  than  any  that  had  gone 
before. 

Chicago,  with  its  central  position  with  reference  to  the  rail- 
way system  of  the  continent,  was  obviously  the  natural  site, 
but  there  were  weighty  objections,  touching  both  finance  and 
the  matter  of  labor,  to  be  urged  against  building  within  the 
limits  of  the  city  proper. 


ARCADE  THEATRE. 


- ^,'-.  ■ >.  f-'-'v . .4^  ■■■'  ‘ V ' '^  ' ' 

•v'  'v^^‘ v;;'‘' ' ■ 


s>'"  ■ - ^ ■ ->'  i*^:.?3  '■  -ifea?:-  ■ •■  • .vi-J^''.,'-  .-■ 


■ • ''^4  ■ - , ■:.-  ' '‘'  -f  - 


''‘mW’Ji  »•  ^ I i^-*-  .-.  -fc-  ■.  ■ ’ ■-..  . ' •t'K-A  .»  : V 


19 


To  meet  these  objections  and  to  have  at  the  same 
time  the  advantage  of  Chicago’s  geographical  position  and 
great  focus  of  railway  connections,  Mr.  Pullman  fixed  upon 
the  vicinity  of  Lake  Calumet,  fourteen  miles  away.  Here  he 
purchased  3,500  acres  which  has  since  increased  in  value  pro- 
portionately with  Chicago’s  remarkable  development.  The 
entire  tract  is  now  embraced  within  the  boundary  limits  of  the 
great  city.  Already  the  advance  waves  of  Chicago’s  swelling 
tide  of  population  are  lapping  its  edges  and  encircling  its 
borders.  Even  now,  the  Pullman  district  is  a center  around 
which  there  is  a connected  girdle  of  thickly  populated  com- 
munities. At  a very  early  date  the  beautiful  town  of  Pullman, 
with  its  shaded  avenues,  its  glimpses  of  bright  water,  its  har- 
monious groupings  of  tasteful  homes  and  churches  and  public 
buildings,  the  whole  colored  here  and  there  with  the  green  of 
lawns  and  the  bloom  of  clustered  banks  of  flowers — at  a very 
early  date  all  this  will  be  as  a bright  and  radiant  little  island  in 
the  midst  of  the  great  tumultuous  sea  of  Chicago’s  popula- 
tion; a restful  oasis  in  the  wearying  brick-and-mortar  waste  of 
an  enormous  city. 

And  then,  too,  at  its  very  door  will  come,  not  long  hence, 
the  bulk  of  Chicago’s  manufacturing  commerce.  It  is  only  a 
matter  of  a short  time  when  Lake  Calumet,  along  which 
the  Pullman  land  stretches  for  miles,  will  become  an  inside  har- 
bor. The  thirty  million  bricks  per  year  which  the  Pullman 
company  is  now  manufacturing  are  made  of  clay  taken  from 
the  bottom  of  the  lake,  and  in  the  meantime  the  Government 
is  dredging  out  the  river  which  connects  Calumet  with  the 
thousands  of  miles  of  waterway  of  the  great  chain  of  lakes 
which  lead  to  the  ocean  and  to  the  world  beyond  seas. 


20 


VVhat  this  land,  which  a dozen  years  ago  was  bleak,  sodden 
prairie,  will  represent  when  this  comes  to  pass,  and  great  ships 
are  moored  to  its  miles  of  water  front,  is  an  interesting  item  in 
speculations  upon  the  marvelous  probabilities  of  Chicago’s 
future  growth.  The  day  is  not  only  coming,  but  is  near  at 
hand  when  the  $30,000,000  present  capital  stock  of  the  Pull- 
man Company  will  be  covered,  and  more  than  covered,  by  the 
value  of  the  3,500  acres  of  land  on  which  is  built  the  town 
of  Pullman. 

Of  the  details  of  how  Pullman  was  constructed;  of  how  the 
dreary,  water-soaked  prairie  was  raised  to  high  and  dry  land; 
of  how  the  entire  town  was  planned  and  blocked  out  in  all  its 
symmetrical  unity  of  purpose  by  Mr.  Pullman  himself;  of  how 
the  architect  and  landscape  engineer,  working  together,  carried 
out  the  details  of  the  plan  to  their  harmonious  and  beautiful 
conclusion — all  this  has  been  told  and  retold  in  the  scores  of 
studies  of  Pullman  which  have  appeared  in  print  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic. 

In  the  same  publications  there  have  appeared  minute  de- 
scriptions of  the  system  by  which  the  sewage  of  the  town 
is  collected  and  pumped  far  away  to  the  Pullman  produce 
farm;  of  how  every  house  and  flat,  even  to  the  cheapest  in 
rent,  is  equipped  with  the  modern  appliances  of  water,  gas, 
and  internal  sanitation;  of  how  grounds  for  athletic  sports 
were  made ; all  the  merchandising  of  the  town  concen- 
trated under  the  glass  roof  of  a beautiful  arcade  building;  a 
market  house  erected  that  is  the  ornament  of  one  of  the  hand- 
somest squares  in  the  town;  churches  built;  a beautiful  school- 
house  put  up,  in  which  there  attend  nearly  a thousand  scholars; 
a library  founded  of  over  8,000  volumes;  a savings  bank 


MAIN  GATE  TO  WORKS. 


21 


established,  paying  a liberal  rate  of  interest  and  conforming 
in  its  regulations  to  the  greatest  convenience  of  the  wage- 
earners;  a theatre  provided  that  is  an  artistic  gem. 

All  this  has  been  detailed  so  much  at  length  that  there 
need  be  to  it  only  a passing  reference.  With  these  details  in 
mind,  imagine  a perfectly  equipped  town  of  12,000  inhabitants, 
built  out  from  one  central  thought  to  a beautiful  and  harmoni- 
ous whole.  A town  that  is  bordered  with  bright  beds  of' flowers 
and  green  velvety  stretches  of  lawn;  that  is  shaded  with  trees 
and  dotted  with  parks  and  pretty  water  vistas,  and  glimpses 
here  and  there  of  artistic  sweeps  of  landscape  gardening; 
a town  where  the  homes,  even  to  the  most  modest,  are  bright 
and  wholesome  and  filled  with  pure  air  and  light;  a town,  in  a 
word,  where  all  that  is  ugly,  and  discordant,  and  demoralizing, 
is  eliminated,  and  all  that  inspires  to  self-respect,  to  thrift  and 
to  cleanliness  of  person  and  of  thought  is  generously  provided. 
Imagine  all  this,  and  try  to  picture  the  empty,  sodden  morass 
out  of  which  this  beautiful  vision  was  reared,  and  you  will  then 
have  some  idea  of  the  splendid  work,  in  its  physical  aspects 
at  least,  which  the  far-reaching  plan  of  Mr.  Pullman  has 
wrought. 


V. 


But  it  is  the  social  aspects  of  Pullman  which  have  been  most 
discussed,  and  in  the  discussion  of  which  there  has  been, 
in  many  cases,  the  most  misapprehension.  Indeed  it  is  quite 
surprising  at  times  to  follow  the  well-meant  reasoning  from 
premises  which  do  not  exist  to  conclusions  which  are  not 
so.  A frequent  source  of  error  seems  to  lie  in  a failure  to 
grasp  the  fundamental  fact  that  it  is  upon  solid  quid  pro  quo 
business  principles  that  the  whole  fabric  is  reared;  that  this  is 
'the  very  element  upon  which  rests  its  self-sustaining  strength, 
and  from  which  its  best  benefits  to  humanity  come;  that  it  is 
from  this  fact  that  the  forces  which  work  to  the  general  good 
are  made  self-renewing  and  self-perpetuating.  Without  a full 
appreciation  of  this  pivotal  proposition  any  attempt  to  know 
the  meaning  of  Pullman,  still  more  to  discuss  its  meaning,  is 
worse  than  idle.  Such  discussions  usually  lead  off  to  such 
irrelevant  fields  of  philanthropy  as  are  occupied  by  the  hospi- 
tals, the  retreats  for  the  aged,  the  maimed  and  the  helpless. 
To  criticise  Pullman,  as  indeed  it  has  been  criticised,  for  its 
failure  to  meet  the  conditions  of  this  field,  is  as  absurd  as  it 
would  be  to  criticise  it  for  failure  to  promote  the  spread  of  the 
gospel  among  barbarous  peoples. 

On  the  business  theory  that  the  better  the  man,  the  more 
valuable  he  is  to  himself,  just  in  that  proportion  is  he  better 
and  more  valuable  to  his  employer;  on  this  simple  business 
theory  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  surround  the  workingmen 


MAIN  ADMINISTRATION  BUILDING. 


t.-. 


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23 


in  Pullman  with  such  influences  as  would  most  tend  to  bring  out 
the  highest  and  best  there  was  in  them.  So  far  from  starting 
with  the  theory  that  these  workingmen  are  weaklings  to  whom 
things  are  to  be  given,  and  who  must  be  held  up  and  supported 
lest  they  fall,  the  starting  point  is  in  exactly  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. The  assumption  is  that  the  Pullman  men  are  the  best 
type  of  American  workmen,  who  stand  solidly  and  firmly  on 
their  own  feet,  and  will  work  out  valuable  and  well-rounded 
lives  just  in  proportion  to  their  opportunities.  By  the  invest- 
ment of  a large  capital,  it  is  found  possible  not  only  to  give 
them  better  conditions  than  they  could  get  elsewhere,  but  to 
give  those  conditions  at  prices  wholly  within  their  power  to 
pay;  and  yet  sufificient  to  return  a moderate  interest  on  the 
investment,  and  so  sustain  it  and  make  it  enduring.  That  is 
the  whole  Pullman  proposition  in  a nutshell.  With  philan- 
thropy of  the  abstract  sentimental  sort  it  has  nothing  to  do. 
With  the  philanthropy  which  helps  men  to  help  themselves, 
without  either  undermining  their  self-respect,  or  in  the  remot- 
est degree  touching  their  independence  or  absolute  personal 
liberty — with  philanthropy  of  this  type  it  has  everything  to  do. 

To  measure  the  actual  effect  of  the  conditions  which  exist 
at  Pullman,  it  is  only  necessary  to  look  at  any  representative 
assemblage  of  the  Pullman  workmen.  During  the  eleven  years 
that  the  town  has  been  in  existence,  the  Pullman  workingman 
has  developed  into  a distinct  type  — distinct  in  appearance,  in 
tidiness  of  dress,  in  fact  in  all  the  external  indications  of  self- 
respect.  Not  only  as  compared  with  the  majority  of  men 
in  similar  walks  of  life  do  they  show  in  their  clearer  complex- 
ions and  brighter  eyes  the  sanitary  effects  of  the  cleanliness 
and  the  abundance  of  pure  air  and  sunlight  in  which  they 


24 


live,  but  there  is  in  their  bearing  and  personal  demeanor 
what  seems  to  be  a distinet  reflection  of  the  general  atmos- 
phere of  order  and  artistic  taste  which  permeates  the  entire 
town.  It  is  within  the  mark  to  say  that  a representative  gath- 
ering of  Pullman  workmen  would  be  quite  forty  per  cent, 
better  in  evidences  of  thrift  and  refinement,  and  in  all  the  out- 
ward indications  of  a wholesome  habit  of  life,  than  would  a 
representative  gathering  of  any  corresponding  group  of  work- 
ingmen which  could  be  assembled  elsewhere  in  the  country. 
Nor  do  the  benefits  that  have  been  brought  about  stop  at  mere 
external  indications.  The  Pullman  workman  has  a distinct 
rank  of  his  own,  which  is  recognized  by  employers  everywhere 
in  the  United  States,  and  which  makes  him  universally  in  demand 
and  sought  after.  There  is,  as  a matter  of  fact,  hardly  a great 
producing  center  in  the  country,  in  the  fields  reached  by  the 
great  Pullman  industries,  to  which  Pullman  men  have  not  been 
brought  by  special  inducements  of  promotion  or  wages. 

These  things  speak  for  themselves,  just  as  do  the  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars  which  stand  to  the  credit  of  these  wage- 
earners  in  the  Pullman  Savings  Bank,  and  just  as  does  the 
bright  border  of  homes  which  fringe  the  outer  edge  of  the 
Pullman  tract,  and  which  represent  the  invested  savings  of 
nearly  a thousand  Pullman  workmen. 

The  story  of  the  town  of  Pullman  is  but  a repetition  on  a 
large  scale  of  the  story  of  the  building  of  the  first  Pullman 
car.  The  same  organic  solidity  of  structure,  the  same  faith 
in  the  intrinsic  commercial  value  of  the  beautiful,  which 
entered  into  the  one  entered  into  the  other.  Indeed  this  same 
logical  unity  of  purpose  and  allegiance  to  fundamental  convic- 
tions, which  is  manifest  through  all  the  great  fabric  which  Mr. 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL. 


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25 


Pullman  has  reared  during  many  years  of  labor,  is  the  dominant, 
the  most  impressive  feature  of  his  achievement.  At  every 
step,  moreover,  the  convictions  upon  which  he  has  acted  and 
the  faiths  to  which  he  has  held  have  been  vindicated,  and 
more  than  that,  they  have  either  actually  wrought,  or  have  had 
in  them  the  germs  of,  radical  benefits.  The  Pullman  car  solved 
the  problem  of  long  continuous  railway  journeys,  and  the  town 
of  Pullman,  along  new  lines,  gives  a hope  of  bettering  the 
relations  of  capital  and  labor.  The  issue  of  this  last  is  a 
question  of  the  future,  but  it  is  at  least  a legitimate  subject 
of  speculation,  whether  what  the  car  wrought  in  one  direction, 
with  all  its  attendant  and  lasting  benefits  to  humanity,  may 
not  in  some  sort,  on  a broader  scale,  and  with  benefits  to 
humanity  even  more  far-reaching  and  enduring,  be  repeated 
in  the  great  field  where  the  town  of  Pullman  now  stands  as  the 
advance  guard  of  a new  departure  and  a new  idea. 

In  brief,  the  Pullman  enterprise  is  a vast  object-lesson. 
It  has  demonstrated  man’s  capacity  to  improve  and  to  ap- 
preciate improvements.  It  has  shown  that  success  may  result 
from  corporate  action  which  is  alike  free  from  default,  fore- 
closure or  wreckage  of  any  sort.  It  has  illustrated  the  helpful 
combination  of  capital  and  labor,  without  strife  or  stultification, 
upon  lines  of  mutual  recognition. 


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^ .»  5f(i  wort  rtijfnUi/^  l<j  nj/of  bbjl  Vf*t  al-,-  / 

' . ' 7/0C5  R bru;  attiiiRQj&ix  w-jf!  *• 


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r /fr»W  yifrte  ^>3011^  ^ajj  Jl  >4iioffr!i"/p^mrT*?&ia^^^  , 

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■:k\  < V'  . „ '•  .: 


ADDENDA. 


29 


STATISTICAL  DATA. 

The  Pullman  Company  was  organized  in  1867,  with  a capital 
of  ;^I,000,000.  Its  present  capital  stock  is  ^74,000,000 ; the 
number  of  stockholders,  8,295. 

The  first  Pullman  car,  the  “Pioneer,”  was  completed  in 
1865.  There  are  now  operated  by  the  Company  4,095  sleeping, 
parlor  and  dining  cars,  under  contracts  covering  180,035  miles 
of  road.  The  number  of  miles  run  by  Pullman  cars  during  the 
year  ending  July  31st,  1904,  was '408,234,382,  and  the  number 
of  passengers  carried  was  13,312,668.  The  total  number  of 
employes  of  the  Company  in  its  operating  and  manufactur- 
ing departments  for  that  year  was  20,355,  wages 

paid  during  the  year,  1^12,570, 913. 55. 

The  longest  regular  unbroken  run  of  any  cars  in  the 
Pullman  service  is  from  Washington  to  San  Francisco, 
3,624  miles. 

About  70,000,000  pieces  of  Pullman  car  linen  are  laundried 
annually. 

The  Town  of  Pullman  has  12,000  inhabitants,  and  is  now  a 
part  of  the  33d  ward  of  the  City  of  Chicago.  Its  extreme 
length  is  about  two  miles  in  a north  and  south  direction,  and 
its  average  width  one-half  a mile.  There  are  eight  miles  of 
paved  streets  and  twelve  miles  of  sidewalk. 

The  rents  of  dwellings  range  from  $5.00  to  $50.00  per 
month,  the  average  being  $11.75  ^ month  ; and  there  are 
hundreds  of  tenements  ranging  from  $6.00  to  $9.00  per  month. 
These  rents  are  considerably  less  than  those  for  similar  tene- 
ments with  as  many  conveniences  anywhere  else  in  Chicago. 


30 


There  are  1,400  machines  in  the  Pullman  shops.  The 
power  is  furnished  by  29  stationary  engines,  which  are  rated 
at  5.800  horse  power.  The  principal  one  is  the  Corliss  engine, 
rated  at  2,500  horse  power,  which  ran  the  machinery  at  the 
Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia,  in  1876.  Connected 
with  it  are  3,000  feet  of  main  shafting  and  89,400  feet  of 
belting. 

Cars  of  every  description  are  made  at  Pullman,  and  the 
shops  have  a capacity  for  turning  out  each  week  6 sleeping 
cars,  15  passenger  cars  and  400  freight  cars. 

In  the  shops  about  54,000  tons  of  coal  are  consumed 
annually,  and  over  100,000  tons  of  iron  and  steel  and  about 
56.500,000  feet  of  lumber  are  used. 

The  total  amount  of  wages  paid  by  the  Company  to  its 
employes  at  Pullman  from  September  ist,  1880,  to  July  31st, 
1904,  was  ^67,174,361.05,  and  the  value  of  materials  used 
during  the  same  period  was  ;^I41, 213,423. 10. 

I'he  number  of  employes  in  all  the  industries  at  Pullman 
at  this  time,  including  women  and  children,  is  6,915.  Their 
average  daily  earnings  are  ^2.25. 

The  Pullman  savings  bank  has  6,256  depositors,  and  their 
deposits  amount  to  $2,180,618,  an  average  per  person  of  $348. 

Of  the  employes  at  Pullman,  about  1,000  own  their  own 
homes  on  the  borders  of  the  Town. 


]1 

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GETTY  RESEARCH  INSTITUTE 


3 3125  01499  0358 


i"  (TtyJL. 


I ff  /him 

Car 


toional  f/n  acil  Iniportanl  Featilrea 


Car  body  exlejidiiiff  over,  and  completely 
enclosiny,  platforms.  This,  in  combination 
with  the  Pullman  Vestibule  and  Anti-telescop- 
ing Devices,  adds  great  strength  to  ends  of 
cans,  rendering  telescoping  impossible,  besides 
greatly  diminishing  atmospheric  resistance  to 
tnins  in  motion,  by  reducing  to  the  minimum 
the  air  pockets  between  cars. 

Veslibuled  Locomotive  Tender,  giving  the 
tram  steadier  motion,  and  increased  cushioned 
resistance  to  shocks  from  the  engine,  affording 
greater  protection  to  Postal.  Baggage  and 
ppress  cars,  minimizing  danger  to  enginemen 
by  preventing  cars  from  mounting  the  engine 
in  event  of  collision. 


I 


